Zoa Help - discoloration?

[mr.lordacan]

Hi all,

I picked up a zoa frag during the July(?) 2023 Reefapalooza. All are doing well, but this one has had ~3 polyps closed up for the past few days. It seems to have opened up a little today and it seems like those individual polyps had lost some color? Is this normal due to being closed up for an extended period of time, or is there something more going on here?

You’ll notice from the photo that there is quite the GHA battle ongoing in my tank. It’s been a battle going back to January 2023, and I’m finally making progress (believe it or not lol).

Parameters
Nitrate: 1ppm
PO4: 0.07ppm
Alk: 9.5 dkh
Calc: 440ppm
Mg: 1280 ppm
pH: 8.1

Lighting: (2)ai prime on 40b
All Blues/UV set at 57%
G: 10%
R: 8%
Whites: 18%

From time to time, I use a diluted 1:5 hydrogen peroxide dip to keep zoas clean due to the persistent GHA… although this frag has only been dipped once maybe 2 weeks ago?

The one next to this frag has not been dipped though due to it growing onto the rockwork.

 

[mr.lordacan]

Bump

 

[MDAquatics]

photo is a little grainy, but you could try brushing them with a soft makeup brush. They look pretty algae covered.

 

[mr.lordacan]

photo is a little grainy, but you could try brushing them with a soft makeup brush. They look pretty algae covered.

Yeah, sorry for the poor photo. Need to get a better camera lol. Thanks, I’ll give that a try. Didn’t know algae could form on the heads. Unfortunately the GHA has been persistent in growing between the polyps.

Been manually removing 2x a week and trying to blow between the polyps with a Turkey baster 2-3x a week.

Attached another photo, not sure it’s any better though.